This is all I ask: if you downvote a node of mine, please tell me why (you can with an upvote, too, if you want; I will write back!). If you explain why you gave a downvote, it's a lot more valuable — you have a good reason in your head why it deserves a downvote, right? Beyond saying whether you approve or disapprove of a node, a vote doesn't really say much to the author. If you want to be an XP whore, vote away and never clarify. But you'll do a lot more to improve the quality of writing here if you message the author and offer suggestions and feedback.

And as for colons and semicolons, they're quite useful. It's like this: if you have two complete sentences that nonetheless are strongly connected, you can put in a semicolon; it helps people understand the way you're thinking. Full colons are used to imply causation or command: use it to your advantage. When you get used to writing them, you can hear them in spoken English. It's quite handy.

Corcis says "Don't trust Elves... is easily one of the most awesome nodes I've ever read. Great work."

Glowing Fish says "I have so many crappy writeups, why do you have to bookmark them?"

jessicapierce says "Honestly, when I saw the topic you were writing about, my brain groaned because so often, reading that shit is PAINful. "noding about noding" is so hard to do well. You've done it. I think you've said exactly what needs to be said on the subject, and put the others to shame."

Junkill says "This is just damned cool. Ziggy Stardust is one of my favourite all-time albums and well, three years of Latin and my pronunciation is good (but it takes me almost an hour to construct a simple sentence) Extra cool points for you, my friend!"

Kit says "Most 15-year olds are weird, but you must've been an especially weird one."

Kizor says "You, sir, are completely whacko, and twist things into the realm of their own personal illogic.

Melikehockey says "Excuse me? You calling me a liar? The "24 hours thing" can be found on the disclaimer of any ROM site. ROMs are legel [sic] if you own the game, and I played Earthbound for 17 hours before being disgusted by its lame ass battle system, and I beat Seperation [sic] Anxiety in twenty hours. Try checking the lawbooks before you open your mouth again, buttmunch." He's wrong, and those sites are lying. -Ed.

Servo5678 says "I blame you for getting that infernal theme song back in my brain after 10 years of banishment."

TanisNikana says "You've come to be one of my most favorite noders. (And you should put that on your homenode, too!)"

themanwho says "I am not amused at your jumping over me in the other users list."

I propose we adopt programming convention and put single characters in single quotes and strings in double quotes in our writing. It'll be interesting for about a week.